2530AFC072525 – A Golden Buzzer Sunday!
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Genesis 18:20-21 – 20 Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.”
Psalm 138:1-2 – (CPDV) [1] 1 Of David himself. O Lord, I will confess to you with my whole heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth. I will sing psalms to you in the sight of the Angels. 2 I will adore before your holy temple, and I will confess your name: it is above your mercy and your truth. For you have magnified your holy name above all.
Colossians 2:12 – 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
Luke 11:3-4 –
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I’m not sure how many of you watch AGT – America’s Got Talent – but if you do, you know about The Golden Buzzer. Since AGT is a talent contest show, the entertainment value is in watching people display their knowledge, talents, and abilities while being watched by four celebrity judges and an audience purportedly of thousands in the venue. Acts that do badly may receive an X from any of the judges. Three X’s and you’re out. Alternatively, if you get 3-4 Yes’s, you advance to the next level of the competition. Occasionally there is an act so extraordinary that it earns the special privilege of going straight to the final rounds of the competitions in which the home audience votes as the judges of the contest. This privilege is “announced” by the sounding of a Golden Buzzer. At that signal, canons shoot tens of thousands of gold-colored confetti into the air. It’s kind of spectacular!
Adelphos, this coming Sunday’s Liturgy gets a Golden Buzzer X 4! For the sake of my own heart, I have to start with the Psalm because (as you’ve often heard) Psalm 138 is my absolute favorite Psalm. The idea of singing in the presence of the Angels just pleases me no end! I think often of the angel God assigned to guard me, and he invites me to sing with him and all the other Angels as we give Glory to God during the Gloria. (↔ Music Link) The word used her for “angels” in Hebrew is אֱלהִים eh-lo-HEEM elohiym which in the Bible is a name frequently used and translated as God – See Genesis 1:1-25 – but it is also sometimes read as the plural of the Hebrew word elowahh as in Psalm 139:19 (Stop here and read this.)
Psalm 138 goes on to affirm that God answers when we call. It declares that all nations will honor and worship God. It assures us that the loftiness of God does not stop him from helping the lowly. The Psalmist declares that God’s protection allows him to walk unharmed through the wrath of his enemies. It ends with a statement of faith in God’s Providence and the knowledge that what God has begun he will bring to fulfillment. This has been one of the guiding principles of this ministry; God will use it as he sees fit. He is the author and I am merely the transcriptionist. Well, there’s half of this post on just one Key Verse!
You see the Key Verse symbol for today is an angel with a key, who is holding a chain and descending on a dragon in front of an open gate. This is from Revelation 20:1-3, (← Check it out!) where an angel binds and throws down Satan – “That Old Serpent” – and locks him in “the pit” (Hell) for 1000 years. I chose that because I am convinced we must do more in concert with the Angels, not just our guardian Angels only, but also all the Choirs of Angels, especially the Warrior Angels who fight against The Accuser ha-Satan endlessly until God himself throws him into the Lake of Fire where he and his Angels and minions (earthlings who denied or refused God) will suffer separation from God for all eternity.
Now, let’s look at that passage from Genesis which features my Old Friend Abraham. God has come with two other Holy Ones to personally inspect the region of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the same Guests to whom Abraham showed extraordinary hospitality as we noted last week. The outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah is, in part, a judgment that they show no hospitality and indeed are so perverted that they draw others into the depths of depravity in their communities which are rife with injustice and violence; in fact there was such rampant injustice, unrighteousness, vanity, murder, physical assaults, thefts, unfair trade practices, double standards, and “dishonest scales.” (See Proverbs 20:23) There was a complete lack of what we would call “Social Justice” there. There was far more going on in that region than the sexual immorality usually associated with the city of Sodom. The idolatries and abominations committed there were numerous and vile, like gang rapes, abuse of the poor, and an attitude of self-indulgence that precluded acknowledgement of God’s authority and benevolence, of human rights, and of basic intrinsic morality.
What would those visitors think of the levels of sinfulness in this present age? For those of us who are rightfully enrolled as True Children of God through Baptism in The Name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, we can be thankful that we probably will never have to know the answer to that question. This is where the third Golden Buzzer goes off. Here again is our Key Verse from Colossians: Colossians 2:12 – 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Recall that previous Memorial Acclamation – “Dying you destroyed our death. Rising, you restored our life. Lord Jesus come in Glory.” (↔ Music Link)
And further, can we contemplate what those three visitors from Heaven must think about the immodest, informal, even sloppy clothing we choose when we are in the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords? For Catholics, modest dress at Mass has always been an accepted norm. These days however, we see T-shirts advertising beer or sports teams, skirts or shorts so short they are nearly a belt. Bare shoulders, plunging Décolletage, sleeveless and skin-tight muscle shirts, “distressed jeans” and tube tops with or without a bra, pants “at half mast,” and all sorts of other apparel choices that are COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE for meeting and receiving the Living and Only Begotten Son of God. It isn’t about fashion, it isn’t about comfort, it isn’t about lack of better – IT IS ABOUT LOVE!
Bishop Robert Barron recounts a story about a young woman (and guys this applies to your garment choices too) who realized the man behind her in the communion line was staring at her instead of Jesus (listen starting here) and he thereby missed out on a moment of worship because of her. Think of it this way: If you were going to dinner with your dad and his long-lost best friend, or shopping with your mom and her boss at work, would you dress like a schlunk, or like you’re headed out to go camping or to the beach? Most likely not because in respect for a loved-one we would dress nicely, modestly, and carefully. We actually pay more attention to how we are dressed when we go to a social event than we do when we go to worship the Prince of Peace with all his Angels and Saints.
Young men and women, praise the name of the Lord. Come to praise him, praise the name of the Lord. That’s what we’re all supposed to be doing, I understand that maybe some of us don’t have clothes that match the sanctity of the Mass, but we can certainly try to look like we understand and respect that sanctity. And yes, I do think pastors need to be more adamantly expressive about appropriate attire at Mass. I, too, have seen that people act better, pray better, and even sing better when they are appropriately dressed. (For more on this, see the story of The Old Cowboy)
Golden Buzzer #4 is for “The Lord’s Prayer” as it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke. I use this form frequently because it helps me clarify what I am asking for through this terrifically POWERFUL prayer. If we were to examine it deeply we could come to the realization that we are asking a lot and promising even more. Many of us use the form which goes, ”and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” (↔ Music Link) There’s that pesky little word “as” again. In Greek it is kai in Latin it is dimisimus. That “as” means “in like manner” meaning forgive us our sins in the same way we forgive – dismiss, leave behind, release another for the harm their trespass against – the injustice caused to us. We dare to ask God to forgive us exactly as we forgive each other. ʻŌmea, do not just gloss over that! Take a moment to think about what that means. I think it means I should forgive the ones who do me harm the way God forgives me. That’s a tall order adelphos, and that’s the reason it’s our 4th Golden Buzzer for the day.
O Lord, I will confess to you with my whole heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth. Perfect our contrition, O God, that we may never depart from what you decreed or live in any way that is contrary to your Law of Love. Teach us to honor you with our hearts, our minds, our souls, our bodies, and our conduct. Because of your Justice we seek your Mercy. Because of your Mercy, we are aware of your Love. You are the God of Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation. That is the import of the Absolutely Perfect Plan. I am reminded of Psalm 90:12 in the old “New American Bible” [2] which reads 12 Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Most other translations omit that word aright. The Psalmist is encouraging us to ask God to make our awareness of the time allotted to us keen, prudent, and conducive to wisdom. I can tell you from personal experience, that’s not the way it always goes. Unless we learn to give God preeminence in all things – worshipping with Angels, respecting the morality our love of God necessitates, our status as children of God through Baptism which unites us with the death and resurrection of Christ, and the mandate in The Lord’s Prayer to live a mature life of charity, morality, hospitality, and honest contrition for the way we mistreat God and the fellow sojourners he has placed on the Road Home to accompany us, then we are likely to miss out on the full impact of any of those Golden Buzzers. Unfortunately I cannot now shower you with golden confetti, but I do send you my love and respect in the koinonia of agape we all share. God bless us every one!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Catholic Public Domain Version See a link to The Bible Hub at the end of the Post, or use the link in this footnote. Check out this Bible version. It’s a great source and it is FREE!.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and/or cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Used by permission.
